Jakarta – Millions of households in Indonesia depend heavily on the services of domestic workers, such as nannies and housemaids, who are practically in charge of doing most basic household chores.

Baby-sitting, cooking, cleaning, and even some non-household work, such as carrying heavy items, have all become part of their daily tasks.

"We can clearly see the impact of these workers on the country's economic productivity, which falls to 40 percent before and after the Idul Fitri holiday, when housemaids and nannies return to their hometowns," Lita Anggraini, the chairwoman of the Domestic Workers Advocacy Network (Jala PRT), said.

The National Economic Census in 2002 estimated there were 2.6 million domestic workers, but the number has risen since, reaching around 4 million now, Lita said.

Of the 4 million, 2.8 million work full time (up to 14 hours per day), from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., and as many as 80 percent of the full-timers usually live with their employers. The average monthly salary for full-time domestic workers in Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Semarang, and Tangerang is between Rp 300,000 (US$33.3) and Rp 500,000.

Part-time housemaids usually only clean and wash clothes, working in multiple households for an average 48 hours a week and a monthly salary of between Rp 300,000 and Rp 400,000.

Apart from the low wages, domestic helpers, both those working in the country and abroad, are vulnerable to human rights abuses and are often denied the protection of regular labor laws.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) said that these workers, including children, are often forced to work more than 15 hours a day seven days a week for low wages or even no wages at all, and sometimes fall victim to sexual or physical abuse.

Jala PRT says that in the case of domestic workers, there were 472 reported cases of labor rights violations committed by employers since 2004, with 30 percent of them involving children as young as 12 in exploitative conditions, and with the rest relating to unpaid wages or late payment of wages.

A recent case of physical abuse hit headlines on July 14 in Pasawaran, Lampung, where 16-year-old housemaid Devi Puspitasari escaped from her employers, who allegedly frequently beat and whipped her since 2009.

But not all housemaids in the country are treated abusively by their employers, so some stories offer hopeful and positive messages.

Siti Aminah, 45, from Kudus, Central Java, for instance, said she was grateful to work for her employer in Sunter, North Jakarta, since the 1970s. "I have Sunday off every week when I usually visit my daughter and her husband in Kemayoran," she said.

Siti's salary is around Rp 700,000, and she gets a bonus at Idul Fitri. "But what really matters is the fact that my employers care not only about me but also my family," she said.

"They even helped pay for my daughter's wedding last year," Siti said, adding that she was satisfied with the bond and trust between her and her employers. (tsy)